Current collector assembly for railway cranes



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 v. RROBB ETAL CURRENT COLLECTOR ASSEMBLY FOR RAILWAY 'CRANES June 10, 1958 Filed gin-1i 11. 1955 Fig.1

. INVENTORS JOHN R. SACHER VINCENT ROBE ATTORNEY June- 10, 1958 v. P. ROBB EI'AL 2,8

CURRENT GOLLECTOR ASSEMBLY FOR RAILWAY CRANES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVEN TOR. JOHN R. 5A C HER l/INCEN T I? ROBE United States Patent CURRENT COLLECTOR ASSEMBLY FOR RAILWAY CRANES Vincent P. Robb, Philadelphia, Pa., and John R. Sacher, Erlton, N. J.

Application Apr-i111, 1955, Serial No. 500,714 1 Claim. 01. 19148) (Granted under Title 35, U. S. Code (1952), sec. 266) The'invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

This invention relates to electric railway vehicle propulsion and in particular is concerned with collector shoe assemblies for transferring current from sub-surface conductor rails through electrical equipment carried by a conductor plow and to a vehicle motor.

Although the collector shoes of the present invention have general utility, they are especially useful in connection with railway cranes which are subjected to shifting operations about local yards and which necessitates their repeated movement over curved rail sections during their normal daily use.

The collector shoe of the present invention adopts the principle of the well known bowed spring types which operate to contact the conductor rails by their expansile and contractile movement. The rails, as is well understood, are located in an open conduit below the ground level and disposed in spaced parallel relation. They are oppositely charged with electric current which is transferred by the collector shoes and other electrical equipment to motors carried by the vehicle trucks.

The bowed spring type of collector is primarily adjustable to maintain contact with the power rails by the inherent resiliency of the spring structure and consequently provide only a limited degree of movement. Hence, they are limited in their operating spread toward and away from their supporting structure. Because of this, particularly in old rail bed installations, the bowed or carriage spring types of shoes fail to make contact with the rails at all times and results in inadequate power supply to the motors. Additionally, and significantly, the bowed spring shoe type, due to its shape, fails to provide sufi'icient surface contact with the conductor rails which results in considerable arcing in the space between the shoes and the rails and consequent reduction in power supply to the motors.

By the present invention the difficulties above mentioned are overcome generally by providing an arrangement by which the collector shoes have a movement toward and from a conductor rail combined with a limited longitudinal movement relative thereto. The particular shoe arrangement provides for substantial operating spread and insures, in addition to constant contact, practically complete surface contact with a conductor rail and thus reduces arcing to atminimum. The shoes may be supported to move laterally for use with spaced rails or they may be supported to move vertically to contact a single rail. Refinements of the invention provide for compactly. arranging the collector shoe electrical equipment with respect to its support to prevent frictional con-' tact with the conductor rails and other subsurface equipment and hence reduce or prevent injury to the equipment.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become more fully apparent from the follow- Patented June 10, 1958 ICC 2 ing description of the annexed drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment, and wherein:

Fig. 1 is a view in elevation of the collector shoe assembly;

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation of the assembly; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing details of a collector shoe.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, the numeral 10 generally indicates a conductor plow having at its upper end angle irons 1111 which permit its ready securement to the underframing of a railway vehicle such as railway crane (not shown) with which the invention is particularly useful. At its lower end and on opposed faces the conductor plow 10 is provided with supports 12 and 13 which extend across the plow for receiving collector shoes which are shown generally at 14 and 15 and will be described in detail in connection with Fig. 3. The collector shoes 14 and 15 function to physically contact the conductor rails and are provided with electrical equipment in the form of lead wires X and Y which transfer the current pickedup from the rails to other electrical equipment (not indicated) but carried by the plow 10. The electrical equip-' ment which is carried by the plow is in turn connected to the motors on the railway vehicle and thus the plow 10 and its associated collector shoes 14 and 15 are arranged to supply power to the motors and move relative to the conductor rails as the vehicle is driven.

The several associated parts of the assembled conductor plow will be insulated as shown at I in Fig. 3 and usual wear plates 16 and 17 will be provided on the plow 10 and suitably positioned to move between the guide or slot rails disposed at the ground surface and above the current conducting rails.

In Fig. 3 details of one of a pair of the cooperating collector shoes 14 and 15 and the particular arrangement for mounting the shoes on the conductor plow are shown. Each collector shoe assembly comprises a base plate 20 which is secured, for example, to the support 12 and each plate has an upper and lower flange forming a first pair of upper and lower horizontal extensions 21-21 and a second pair of similar extensions 21a--21a. Each pair of extensions is formed with cooperating slots 22- 22 and 22a22a and the pairs of slots receive shafts 23 and 23a to which are fixedly secured the inner ends of bracket arms 2424 and 25-25. The pairs of bracket arms 24 and 25 have their outer ends pivotally mounted to the collector shoe 14, as shown, and which is provided with bevelled or rounded vertical edges 26-26 and a fiat surface therebetween. Coil spring means 27 is mounted about each shaft 23 and 23a and, as shown, the spring means has free ends disposed on base plate 20 and has pivoted ends mounted in the bracket arms in order to constantly bias the collector shoe away from the base plate.

The leads X and Y, as shown in connection with the lead X, are attached to the collector shoe by means of an open end bracket connector or clip 30. The other ends of the leads are connected to the other electrical equipment carried by the conductor plow, for example, as explained in connection with our copending application for Railway Conductor Plow, Ser. No. 500,713 and filed April 11, 1955.

The collector shoe 14 is of less extent than the distance between the inner ends of the slots in either'of the horizontal extensions. Consequently when the outer ends of the bracket arms are connected to the collector shoe both pairs of the arms will converge toward each other and thus position the collector shoe generally centrally of the base plate. The spring arrangements are such that the bracket arms and the collector shoe will be constantly biased away from the base plate in order to insure physical contact with the conductor rail or rails.

The length of the bracket arms will determine the operating spread of the collector shoes and for use with railway cranes the operating spread of each collector shoe will be of the order of 5 or 6 inches. The rounded or bevelled edges on the collector shoe provide an arrangement for permitting the shoes to pass over rail jointures uninterruptedly and to adapt the device'for use particularly with abrupt rail curvatures. The face of the collector shoe between the rounded edges is generally fiat in order that substantial surface contact is had with the curved rail sections.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claim the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

A current collecting device for a vertically disposed conductor plow which comprises a base plate for being affixed horizontally of one face of the plow, said base plate having an upper and lower outwardly extending flange thereon, an elongate vertical slot adjacent each end of each flange providing horizontally spaced pairs of upper and lower aligned slots, a first'vertical shaft extending through one pair of aligned slots and being horizontally movable therein, a second vertical shaft extending through the other pair of aligned slots and being horizontally movable therein, a collector shoe having a first and a second vertical edge, a first pair of spaced upper and lower arms each having one end fixedly secured to said first vertical shaft and its other end pivotally connected adjacent said first vertical edge of the collector shoe, a second pair of spaced upper and lower arms each having one end fixedly secured to the second shaft and its other end pivotally connected adjacent said second vertical edge of the collector shoe, a first spring means for independently biasing said first pair of arms and the first vertical edge of the collector shoe outwardly of the base plate and a second spring means for independently biasing said second pair of arms and the second vertical edge of the collector shoe outwardly of the base plate, both said spring means cooperating to maintain the collector shoe generally parallel with the base plate and in surface contract between its vertical edges with a straight section of rail and each spring means being operative to permit each vertical edge of the collector shoe to move independently inward toward the base plate and the collector shoe to follow any curvature of a conductor rail and maintain substantial and sutficient contact therewith to prevent arcing.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 389,279 Bentley Sept. 11, 1888 522,655 Creveling July 10, 1894 639,235 Hewlett Dec. 19, 1899 647,748 Gottsberger Apr. 17, 1900 1,790,690 Wood Feb. 3, 1931 FOREIGN PATENTS 395,468 France Dec. 28, 1908 335,263 Great Britain Sept. 22, 1930 

